At Home Botanist Program Application

At Home Botanist

Program Application & Sample Submission
The At-Home Botanist program has been approved by AgriLife for Master Gardener volunteer hours and/or continuing education hours. This screening process is designed to help us pick the right folks for the program based on their interests, experience, technical skills and acumen for research.

Please follow the instructions below in completing the submission assignment. Once we have reviewed all of the submissions, we will notify you if you have been selected.

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Thank you for your help enhancing our PlantTAGG plant library. Please complete the following details about the assigned specific plant. It’s VERY IMPORTANT that these responses be in your own words and not copied from internet sources. You can certainly use any internet source for doing research, but PLEASE shape your research into your own responses for each item. Please do not use any personal pronouns such as "I", "My", "Me", "My" or "You" in your crafted response and keep your response somewhat generic as it relates to geography (i.e. don't reference your city, neighborhood or locale) as PlantTAGG will localize these plant profiles programmatically. You will be able to edit your responses after you submit if you wish, and you will get a confirmation email of your submission once sent.

By submitting this requested information, you affirm that the information submitted is your own and that PlantTAGG, LLC shall become the owner of the submitted information without limitation on use or subject to any license or royalty for such ownership and use to you or any 3rd party. This transfer of content ownership does not restrict your ability to use and/or re-purpose the information unrelated to PlantTAGG.

There are other data values which PlantTAGG has already collected for each of the plants in the library. For references purposes the following is how PlantTAGG defines Preferred Sunlight: Full Sun (6+ hours); High Sun (4-6 hours); Partial Sun/Partial Shade (2-4 hours); High Shade (1-2 hours); Full Shade (little to no sun).

The best place to start is by simply entering the botanical name of the plant to be profiled in google. You will find a lot of reference sites - some helpful and some not. Some of the better sites are:

Missouri Botanical Garden, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower, any of the university extension sites such as TAMU/AgriLife, North Carolina State, Clemson, University of Oregon, University of Central Florida, University of Florida, and other popular private sites such as Gardenia, Monrovia, etc.

To reiterate - DO NOT COPY CONTENT FROM THESE SITES - USE THEM ONLY FOR REFERENCE TO HELP YOU SHAPE YOUR SUBMISSION IN YOUR OWN WORDS.
Your Name:*

First NameLast Name
Your Email Address:*
Example: andrew@planttagg.com
Select your Association, Chapter or Group Affiliation:*
This will ensure your affiliation gets proper credit for your AHB work.
How would you rate your Internet Research skills?*
How would you rate your technical skills (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, social media, mobile)?*
How would you rate your writing skills (grammar, punctuation, creativity)?*
Please describe why you are interested in the At-Home Botanist program and what makes your skills, experience and capabilities a great fit.*

Plant to Profile

Botanical Name: Hydrangea quercifolia

Common Name(s): Oakleaf Hydrangea
Additional Common Name(s):*
Enter additional common names this plant is known by in addition to what you received in the email with the link to this form.
Plant Description:*
Creatively describe the plant including origin, basic structure and color of the plant, bloom and fruit, bloom times. and what makes the plant interesting and unique. Include USDA north/south zones, adult height, adult spread, plant spacing, sunlight and water preferences. Described how the plant can be used in landscapes.
Planting & Propagation Instructions:*
Describe the best conditions for this plant - sunlight, water, soil, pH. Also the best methods of propagation - seeds, division, etc. Finally any best practices for planting techniques.
Basic Care Instructions:*
Describe the standard care tasks, water, staking or any other care unique or specific to this plant
Fertilizing Instructions:*
Describe exactly when, how and what type of fertilizer to use (liquid, granule, slow release) and the optimal NPK values (i.e. 10-10-10). If no fertilizer is recommended state that and why.
Pruning Instructions:*
Describe when and how to prune this plant
Pests & Disease:*
Describe any pests or disease common to this plant, what to look for and how to treat.